Just Move On - Exodus 14:15

By Odon Bulamba

Exodus 14:15, Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to move on”.

This is a very short but powerful message.  Imagine you are crying to God and He says, “Why are you crying? Just move on”.  Very often we believe the last result will only come from God and when things don’t work the way we want, we come to Him and He says, “It’s too much, I’ve heard you crying a lot, it’s time to move on”.  Imagine if you as a child are crying in front of your dad, and he says, “move on stop crying”.  Maybe you will feel he doesn’t care.

When the people of Israel were leaving Egypt and it was time for them to say goodbye to Egypt.  As they were leaving, God went by His own power to harden Pharaoh’s heart to deliver them from slavery.  The Israelites were happy, “We are free now”, but God said, “Not yet”, and He went to harden God’s heart to make him angry.

Imagine that you are now a Christian and you are free but a sin becomes hard to resist again in your life.  Why does he allow such challenges?  I was around 14 when I asked myself, what is the purpose of my life on this earth?  I was a good student and I wanted to be a pilot because of the prestige.  Then a plane crashed and I decided it was a wrong choice, I wanted a safer job that was paying well.  Whatever I chose, there were consequences e.g. a doctor might accidently kill someone.  Therefore, I asked, what is my purpose to be here?

We can study all night and then only get 40% for the test.  We can ask ourselves why.  God wants us to discover that He has a purpose for us and it’s not our purpose.  You can plan to be someone but God has a plan that we will be something else. 

Pharoah was given a task to attack the Israelites.  He took 600 best chariots to attack them and go after them.  Chariots have horsemen on them that are warriors and well trained to kill.  A simple person like you and I, if we saw 600 police with guns, we will feel scared.  The Israelites saw this group of people coming after them and they know that they can’t run faster than horses.  They were in panic.  In this panic God told them, “Why are you crying to me, just move on?”  How can I move on when soldiers are coming on horses to kill me? 

I was in a hotel one time and the fire alarm went off and I walked into the wall because of fear.  Everyone was shouting fire and I wanted to push the wall to escape.  When in panic your brain doesn’t function properly.  We shout during that time and God will say, “Move on”.

How many things have been attacking you in your life and how many challenges are in your way and you cry to God and He is silent. You pray and tell God your problems but He tells you move on.  You can’t do more than what you have done and God tells you, “Move on”.  When your neighbours don’t like you and God says, “no move on with that relationship”. 

When the time came, God told Moses, “What do you have in your hand?  The red sea opened using the staff in his hand.  Even if it is just the Waikato river with a path and water on each side, I won’t pass.  When we fear we don’t take the risk.  You can tell someone to climb on the roof and fear can make them think twice because of the consequences. 

When you think about the consequences for God’s purposes you fail.  You must live like children who don’t think about consequences.  They can play with a knife.  It is up to you to protect your children.  Whatever we do is controlled by God and we are protected by Him.  When you sleep and you snore, you feel good but when someone wakes you up, you will be annoyed or when the alarm goes off early in the morning, you feel you need to sleep.  God is in control of all of that.

Accept it or not, even if it is dark, the light will show outside.  You will see the sun in the morning appearing.  No matter what challenges you face, the sun is rising soon and God will end your problems.  Don’t stand still, move on.

What direction?  What area?  In God’s trust.  You have faith, continue to trust in God and follow what you believe is right and don’t be influenced by what others think is right for you.  That is the purpose of your life.  You might be a Doctor of Medicine, or have a PhD, or be a mother but one day we will go back to God and He will ask us a few questions.  We can never say, “Because you hardened the heart of others against me, that is why I failed”.  God will never accept that, He will say that was a test.

When it is time for a test at school, it is up to you to answer the questions. When the test comes, you are split up from each other and you can’t take a cheat sheet.  When a test comes you must be frank with yourself.  This is the test, answer what you can.  God will every time hold a red pen to mark and don’t be shocked when you see red marks and notes everywhere.

When you get a result from the teacher with red everywhere, you will feel bad.  You look at the mark over 100 to be afraid it will be less than 50% due to all the marks.  When you see red from Jesus don’t be surprised if you get 70%.  God is a good teacher who give us marks to improve.  When you fail, ask God for forgiveness.  Are we ready to go in front of God with our test for marking?  Are you ready to be marked in front of the entire world?

I was watching America’s Got Talent.  People are trying their best to perform to impress Simon Cowell.  Although we have four judges, all the people only want to know what Simon will say.  Their mind is only with Simon. If Simon stands up and claps, people will cry.  When Simon says, “What you have done is amazing”, the crowd goes crazy.  I’ve seen once, Simon push the golden buzzer and people were shouting and the parents were crying.  That is a performance in front of a human being.

Now think of yourself performing in front of Jesus.  You are performing today.  What are you doing right now?  Does it impress God.  Does your day to day impress God to make Him push the golden buzzer or do you not care?  Many people live like clowns to make people to laugh but they don’t laugh themselves. They try to impress others but they don’t impress themselves.  I have seen a clown being tough on his family with no laughing.

You can be a Christian, nice outside of your family but how are you inside with your family?  Kids can talk with their friends for 2 hours but never have 5 minutes to talk to their parents.  All of this, God is marking.  He is reminding you to move on in the right direction.

We may not be alive tomorrow.  We don’t know what will happen.  Exams or tests will always have a set time.  A three hour exam will have questions with a series of questions.  You can be short or tall, fat or slim, the exam will be the same for all of us.  You can never tell God, I didn’t have a Bible, or a didn’t have time to read it, how often do you have time to chat with God, how often are you on your Facebook page with God and inviting others to your group with God.

We must make disciples of men.  I have 15,000 followers on Leo Nj Leo but others have 1 million.  If I could take those 15,000 to Christ, that would be good.  God will ask me one day about this.  You have the skills to bring your friends to God.  We can easily make friends but not disciples of Christ.

We can create a Facebook group and only talk about our own things.  Some want to talk only about Jesus.  We want to only show our photos and videos of ourselves.  One time in my dream, I saw social media and I was told to post a few things on that and as I was posting my friends were mocking me, “it is boring”.  When other people post stupid things, people are happy and they share it with others.

That is a test for us. When we have a test we have to think about how to answer the question so we can get good marks.  One day God will ask about your Facebook because our actions and faith must work together.  I don’t say that Facebook is bad but is it possible to turn it to God’s purposes.

Give to God all the thanks and glory.  Pharoah came after the Israelites.  There was no way to escape.  That is when miracles happen when there are challenges.  Don’t give up your faith because of circumstances.  Don’t give up your God because of problems.  Move on.  Even where there is no way, move on.  If God tells you, go through that wall, move on.  God may open that wall for you.

Family First

By Odon Bulamba

It's a special day for me and possibly for you too.  Why? First for me, I was not supposed to be here this morning.  Due to what I faced for the past several days it is only by the grace of God that I am here among you?  Where I went last time I was overseas, I didn’t go as a tourist to look around but I went to a place where I saw terrible things and did not expect.  Imagine someone telling you Shari, your son is in the hands of ISIS.  How will you feel?  You will be shocked, you will see death, torture and I went across that situation. 

I had to leave New Zealand without knowing where I was going because I had to visit someone who was sick and that sickness was started because she was captured by ISIS and taken from place to place.  I will talk about that more on 19 march.

Thanks to God first of all when I went to Congo last time, our small group here has given birth to a big church there that is maybe 40x bigger than this one.  Like a seed of beans that you sacrificed and then it gives a harvest that is more than one seed.  These people have been watching messages on line.  Now have they started a branch of Little Bethlehem Church.  When I was invited I was shocked to see hundreds sitting on the ground, on stones without a roof, no microphone and they are adoring God and have giving their lives to God.

How can your prayer be the key to opening doors to new churches somewhere else?  When you are praying to save people and telling God, “I want your word to reach others”, God answers.  I would be happy for you to see this church and the fruit of your work and prayers.  I praise God for that.  Now we need to do something for those people.  They want the trust deed so they can register their church and follow us and be a branch of this church.  We are now parents of this small new born church. 

My message this morning will be about family first.  When we talk about family we see mother father and children.  A family is not something that you just pick up but something that God has chosen.  You didn’t have a choice of who will be your mother/father/sister in family.  God made that choice for you.  Ange you are now living in Hockley family.  When God created the world, the Bible doesn’t tell us that He created a space for seven days for angels to live but He created the world for us.  We have fish, birds, and animals just for humanity to survive.  He has created a place just for you and me on earth.

God found that He needed a human being and that that man should never be by himself.  This was the beginning of the family.  He put Adam and Eve together to make the first family and said, “Multiply yourselves”.  Adam had no idea when he was sleeping what would happen but when he woke up, he found this is what I need.

Yesterday when you were young you did not know who you would marry tomorrow.  Then suddenly, here is Nathan for Shari.  Colleen has found Keith.  God will bring someone new in your life that you have never known before and you will make a family and then you will have your descendants.  The best gift ever that God has given humans apart from Jesus on the cross is the family but we always put our family last.

“These children make me crazy, what type of husband/wife have you given me, why did I get this mother?” We complain.  I wish my father was like this person’s parent’s.

Nehemiah 4:12-14, we find a text where Nehemiah came across a strategy of using families.  We have to build a wall in groups of families.  The Lord has given this message to Nehemiah which is opening our minds and hearts today.  Asking the people to look after their families and not be afraid of the enemy but to fight for the friends, family and homes. 

Does your family come first in your life or not?  If God has given me a family, I should put it as the first position.  We can fight for those around us but not for our families.  Who is your family?  We have two: (1) physical brothers, sisters and parents (2) spiritual church.

Physical side you will see a father who does not really love his family or mother who doesn’t care much about her family.  We church sometimes don’t care about each other.  We live as pieces of puzzles and we lose the shape when we are separated by the wind.

When God created the first family, satan was not happy and so he tempted them to divide them.  Satan knew that once the families stick together, then he will be defeated so he first wanted to separate them from the love of God.  Your first temptation in life will come from your family.  Your mother/father or sister can be a stumbling block for you.  That is why Nehemiah is saying fight for your families and your houses and then for your friends. 

It was not your choice to be born in your family but ask yourself why God put you in this family.   Ask yourself, what role should I play in this family?  What is the mission God gave me in this family?  Many fail in this.  Including pastors, preachers and prophets.  They can organise the church but at home there is fire. 

Someone can be a director of a big company but their family can be divided.  Satan is trying to separate you from your family to hate your family.  Do you love every person of your family?  No.  Do you share your opinion with all your family members?  No.  Can you walk proudly with each member of your family?  No.  Sometimes yes but not every time. 

You might defend your child but inside your heart you know where you stand face to face with God.  We try to avoid realities what God has given to us as responsibilities.  “Go to school now so I can have a rest.  My child is a burden.  I can’t move around because of my child”.  Some children as they are growing old, “oh mum this is old fashioned, you know nothing mum, my generation is different to yours.  You don’t belong to this generation so I have nothing to do with you.  I’m grown up now”. 

When you gave birth you can say proudly, “this is my baby” and some cry and hold the baby with joy.  “Who does she look like?”  Comparisons will begin on who they look like.  The baby is a gift from God.  Your first responsibility is to raise that child.  For no reason the child will cry.  “What is your problem?”  No reason.  “Angela, take care of your child I need to rest, take her away”.  The mother has to carry the child away.  As the child is growing older, you don’t realise that they are growing.  Yesterday a baby and today, no more a baby.

The seed that you put in the child is growing with the child.  If satan visited your family as a child, he will visit four times more.  The child stand up and talks harshly in front of everyone, you can feel ashamed.  Neighbours will judge.  This is what you get from not educating your child.  It can be satan, it can be a challenge that God is using to remind you that you have a gift from Him and you must help your child.

I once saw a court case where the mother said, “no my son will never do that” but finally the son said, “I did it”.  The mother was shocked.  Never say you know your children very well and you will defend them.  Possibly say, “as far as I know but I should ask my child first”.

When Nehemiah put the families together, he gave them tools to fight with.  What have you given to your family to fight the wars.  When you come home angry, with problems, when your children are not living safely, what have you given them to protect themselves?  Of course we pray to protect them but do they have any weapon to stand against the attack of Satan.  If yes, how did you train them to use that tool?  You can’t say, “I invited my child to church, that is enough”.  They need to practice. 

Many will consider their parents as evil.  How will God think about that?  You are treating the person I gave you as evil.  If my parents are evil, then I should pray for them and love them.  But if I just tell people my parents are evil, God who made that selection for you will be shocked and ashamed.

Genesis 49, this is the time when Jacob wanted to die.  Jacob was a good friend of God who was chosen in the womb of his mum.  He was dodgy and tricky but he was a friend of God and God named him Israel and we are the children of Israel.  God has chosen this same Jacob who was naughty to give birth to the 12 tribes.  God has chosen the one who could lie in order to earn and gain and God thought this is my choice.  It doesn’t matter how good or bad your child is, keep praying, keep fighting for your family.

What does it mean to fight?  It means you engage yourself in a battle and you forget your jeans, your glasses and put them aside and use your strength.  Some are born weak but because of practising, they build up their strength and become strong.  In your family who do you think you should fight for?  Should you only fight for your sister or yourself and forget the rest.  Joshua said, “my family and I will serve the lord”.  Us today, “Lord I want to serve you” but we forget our families. 

Jacob was given 12 children, and in Genesis 49, he started to bless them.  Rueben you are this but I don’t like this.  He was attacked.  Simon and Levi, you are my children, your anger is not good.  Those two gentlemen had a sister who was raped and they became angry against the man who raped their sister and they waited for the time of circumcision and so they attacked the men for revenge.  Now, Levi is cursed and Simon are cursed while it was the time to get the blessing. 

As you can see Jacob invited the family.  How often do you invite your family, how often do you have time to talk to your family, not for a party but talk as a family and bless them and pray for them.  How often does that happen?  Never.

God has made you as a light of your family but at zero occasion you invite your family to talk and bless them.  We don’t have time for that but to hold a party we can have ideas and we can make something special for you. 

Your anger is not good.  To become angry is not a sin but your anger should look at the sky and once the sun is going down, your anger must stop.  You can become angry but once sun goes down, stop your anger.  Don’t bring back what took place two years ago. 

Families have secrets.  This is a family issue, we can’t talk about it outside of our compounds.  Jacob kept secret in his heart and now the time came to tell off his family so they could learn from their mistakes.  “I, Jacob, your father, I was a terrible person, I lied to my father, my boss” but he didn’t want his children to go through the same mistakes.  He didn’t want them to be on the wrong path.  Be careful because the curse is following you.

From my mistakes, what do I teach my children and myself, my cousins or am I just there to point my finger and blame them.  After talking to the children, Levi was the only one that was not cursed because of his behaviour.  Those children continued to live but they were supposed to put aside anger.  Your family breaks apart because of anger.  How often do you become angry against your mother, wife, children for small things and that anger doesn’t stop there but after two weeks you continue to talk about it, “I will never forgive that, it is unacceptable”? 

We go back to the past and dig it up to bring back to the presence.  Your anger is destroying your family.  Your anger must stop when the sun goes down.  “Triden, you are my son but you promised not to do this anymore but why are you doing this again” and sometimes we are proud to show others that we are angry with them.  God is looking at you and asking, “do you want me to remove these people from you?” Sometimes mothers will say, “Stop it, I will kill you” and we can sometimes even swear.  How will you feel if God takes away that child from you?  Yesterday you were complaining and today you have a rest but you don’t want to rest anymore.  Levi and Simon knew they were wrong and knew they should deal with anger issue.

Same with us.  When Pete does something wrong you will see Ange’s hand become strong.  We are in a battle.  When a child does something, parents become angry and vice-versa.  Anger is one of the best tools to divide families.  Once angry, how will you pray for me?  How will you ask God to help me and save me?  When you hear stories about your father, you become angry but is that really from God?  It is our task to protect our family.  Whenever Leah is doing something wrong, instead of helping Leah I judge Ange and make her angry so she can attack Leah.  Some enjoy breaking peace in families.

Praise God, we have eyes.  When your child is wrong, we don’t need to shout at them and tell the neighbours but talk nicely, responsibly with respect.  When you are angry, can you control your mouth?  You vomit everything on that person and destroy peace in your family.  If I attack Ken in front of Michelle, she will not be happy because I attack her brother.  If I attack Nicole in front of Leah, she won’t be happy because she is her aunty.  What we say under anger, we tear apart our families and then we are the first to complain and criticise.  Family is called to live in unity.

Some people show others that all is good but in their heart there is fire and behind the person’s back they say things like, “oh that person is bad, what they did to me, I can’t accept this.  I will judge, criticise, hate and show the world she is a monster”.  As family of God we are called to forgive and live one for another.  As the Bible says, let those who are strong help those who are weak.  If you are stronger than your family members, then why don’t you intervene and support them.  You are the first to stone them, expose them, mock them. 

Moses went to the mountain and came down and saw those worshiping a gold statute.  Levi was the only one who put up his hand and said we are on the side of the lord.  Yesterday we were wrong but today we put aside anger and learn.  Levi who was cursed in Genesis 49, if you read Leviticus you will see God has blessed those people because they were the only people to serve God, to carry the arc.  Don’t say that someone is a bad person in the family because they may change and you will be amazed that the weakest one, God will rise up and make the strongest one.

If God can change Levi and the people who did great things in Bible.  Why not in your family?  Who is the Simon in your family?  Who is the Reuben in your family?  Do you know very well your family?  You need to teach your family how to act and handle problems and situations.  Other parents because of pressure and stress sometimes they can teach the children, “look what your father did, look what your aunty did” and we start to accuse our family to our own children. 

If you can’t handle your situation, will your child be able to handle it?  How will your 4 year old child handle it?  We are called to kneel down and pray and not look only at the wrong side but look at what these people have done for your family in a positive way.  Once you start to see the positive, you will see no one else could do that for you.  What we do is unique.

My mother told me recently that when I was only two years old she misplaced a coin that she really needed for soap and I picked it up and she couldn’t find it while I was holding it and at front of the shop I put out my hand and she took the money without asking.  Other things our children do in our lives can change the situation.  If I had thrown away the coin or not offered it to her, she could not have bought the soap. Teach your children how to say sorry and then forget about it.  Don’t humiliate your children, father, husband in front of everybody. 

We are called to know that anger is not a good took to use in our families.  You were not born angry.  If so, be angry over good things.  I can’t read my Bible for two days, I’m angry with myself, I must read it now.  That is a good anger.  To destroy with your anger is terrible.  I have seen husbands run away from wives because of anger.  Control your anger then you will know how to help your family. 

If you don’t have love for one of your family members, now is the time to start to love them.  When Jesus used to fish, he never used the fishing rod but a net.  He would tell people, cast your net.  With a fishing rod you will only catch one fish at a time.  One time Peter cast his net on one side and caught nothing until God told him to cast the net on the other side.  Cast your net on the other side to help your family to be caught.  If you keep saying, no this is the way I want to treat them, then they will never be caught for Jesus.

The net is you and me and we can bring many in with love.  If your relationship is poor then go through another family member to bring you back together because it will be sad on the last day of judgement if you don’t see all you love in heaven.  Won’t God say it is because of you, “I gave them to you, what role did you give to your family to prepare for the battle?”  Pray and make a step and go out to ask for forgiveness and build your relationship.

Tomb

By Odon Bulamba

It is my joy to be here this morning and nothing is good in life like feeling joyful.  You can possess money and have all the wealth of the world but if you don’t feel joyful, it will be meaningless.  When some are joyful, they cry and others laugh and some lose their sleep due to the joy.  How do you express your joy?  When you feel very joyful, how do you express it?  Some smile and others try to control it and others try to turn around so no one can see them smiling.  It doesn’t matter who you are, joy comes to each person. 

It’s joyful to hear that Jesus died for us and came back to life: that is the news of joy.  Someone passes away, we lose hope of seeing them again and then suddenly, he is back to life: that is joy.  What a joy when you find something you lost.  Many people don’t care when they lose something because they think they will find another but if something is precious to you and you get it back, you love it more.  You will take care of it better than before so you can’t lose it again.

Jesus, how did we get Him back?  He came back to life and now He is with us and it is our responsibility to not lose Him anymore.

Deuteronomy 34:5-7, Moses was famous and everyone knew he was a powerful leader both physically and with his words but regardless of his achievements and power, God decided to take the life of Moses.  God said, you worked for me and you did what I asked, now it is time to take you back.  What a sad moment.  Look at those millions of people following Moses.  Now God is taking him away.  God said, don’t worry I will give you someone to replace him but they thought, Joshua is not Moses and maybe he won’t play the same role as Moses.

When Moses passed away people cried because their beloved was removed from them.  When Moses was taken by God his body where was there but Moses himself was outside of that body.  They could keep that body for 600 years but the body wasn’t Moses anymore, it was a dead body.

God said He created you from the dust and you will return to the dust.  We try to put that aside and don’t want to hear about that.  When someone is dying, we can fast and pray loudly and cry to God because my brother is dying and you lose your joy and lose your appetite, strength and peace of mind and heart. People will be able to read the sadness on your face.  Someone will maybe rub your shoulders to encourage you. 

Where is the joy of death?  When death hits your sister, brother or friend, do you keep your joy and say hallelujah because you have taken what belongs to me?  Sometimes we feel angry and tell God He is not fair.

A few days ago my sister lost her son who was very clever and among her five children, he was the only one who would pray every morning praising God and then pray for his dad.  He was only 12 years old and he was doing that since he was five.  He would bless the food every time.  He was an amazing boy.  He got sick and in five hours he passed away.  My sister told me, why does God do this to me?  Why only this child?  Would you give away the first born to keep him?  He is God and He knows what he is doing.  For the past three nights I go to bed at 4am to keep my sister company and talk with her. 

God took Moses and people wondered what they can do now.  In Deut 34:6, God came down and buried the body of Moses because He didn’t want [people to worship the tomb of Moses.

Whenever someone dies we know the tomb holds the body and a tomb is a place where many magicians (those that work for the power of darkness) will go to collect power to invoke the power of evil so they can perform magic.  Around that area you will find evil spirits and people will go there to worship. 

When we are alive we don’t think about the tomb and try to forget about death and try not to think about where we will be buried but those around us will be forced to take the responsibility when we pass away to bury us.  If someone dies today, that person will say, my mission is finished.  It is the responsibility of others to deal with the body.  They treat that body with more respect. 

Some people when they are alive are not respected at all.  Their family pushes you away but once you are dead, everyone will treat your body with respect and say, this person was amazing and talk nicely about you and make jokes and forget that yesterday, they didn’t respect you or tell people about you but when you die, they will speak about you to others, “I remember such day we did this and this together”.  Don’t we sometimes praise God when God is away from us?  Don’t we sometimes praise ourselves when life is away from us? 

People will pick up the body and think what is next.  Most funerals will have a program and a committee that will organise it.  Such person will do this and another will do this and they will share tasks in order to take care of this dead body but when you are alive no one shares tasks with you. 

“Sister, I need five dollars”, “no I don’t have it”.  “I need you to visit me”, “oh go and see the doctor” but when you die, they will sit next to you for hours and show remorse and there is no joy because the person was dear to them.

After planning, they will choose a place to be buried.  You came from dust and you have to go back there.  They choose a place and pay money, some places are $5000 and others up to $50,000.  Those alive will have to dig the place and then with respect, calmly take you down slowly into the grave, they won’t just throw you in.  Then you are covered, you are gone and finished.  That is the last time we will see that person until heaven, “I’ll meet you in heaven” but you didn’t make that appointment while they were alive.

God knew the people will worship where Moses body is laid and he is a jealous God.  In the church today you will see pastors, bishops, big prophets who will leave their countries to go to visit where Jesus was buried and they will worship that place and take some soil from that place and bring it back to New Zealand.  Brother you are sick, take some of this soil from the tomb of Jesus and you will get healing in Jesus’ name and you will take the soil and believe God has healed me.  This is a pastor, a prophet, a servant of God!

Another will walk where Jesus was baptised and say, “wow this is Jordan where Jesus was baptised.  Hey give me six bottles of water to take home” and they believe this water is pure and when they start to pray for people, they will give them a small cup of water to drink because it contains power to be healed.  Others will put a little on your face with the sign of the cross and you feel so blessed.  Are you sure you are blessed, or cursed?  It is clear from the Bible that He wants only to be worshiped and the dead is dead and He is not in the grave anymore, He is alive.

Servants of God will go to Israel to collect stuff, Jesus did miracles here, He passed here and those memories will become tools to pray, to heal and to preach.  When you ask someone to pray for you and the first thing they will do is cover your head with a small piece of material from Israel and you will be asked to take special water from Israel to drink it and then you are healed.  Satan has a power and he tricks people.  He will make you to go in front of an empty tomb where Jesus is not there and you worship and pray with tears, “This is where your body lies, I am here with you”.  Father in heaven says, “I am not here with you, I am alive”.

The tomb will make it like an ornament in order to keep the body there.  Jesus’ body was kept there for three days only and those three days were not with Jesus sitting there looking at the tomb, He went to fight to take the key from Satan.  He didn’t stay in the tomb.  Although, He told his disciples, I will come back to life, how many believed him?  First they believed He couldn’t die because He is God and then He died, so is He really going to come back to life?  How often do you say, oh it’s been a long time since Jesus said He will return.  He told his disciples He will come back for them.  Some might think that Jesus has forgotten His appointment with us. 

Once Jesus came back to life, the tomb was there but Jesus was walking around.  We should move with Jesus to cities and go wherever He walks around.  We should not stay in one spot stagnating.  When Jesus walks, do you walk with Him?  When He changes His direction, do you change your direction also?  Or do you prefer to stay with the dead body because you don’t have time to follow Jesus around everywhere, “I’m not a puppet or a dog to follow you around, I need to enjoy and relax” and we try to make this Jesus to be a dead Jesus forever.

When a person is dead, you can do what you want with the body and the person won’t react.  In Arab countries, they will beat the dead body as a punishment but the person is not there anymore.  When you want to make Jesus to be a dead God in order to fulfil your desire, God says, “my son, you should wake up, open your eyes and ears because I am not here anymore, what you are doing is not what I asked you to do”.  We promise to follow Jesus and worship him, Jesus guide me.  Do we allow him to guide us?  Do we really follow him?  Do we treat him as an alive God?

We want to focus on the tomb like those soldiers.  Are you one of those who stand there because you believe Jesus is dead?  One of Jesus’ disciple, Thomas didn’t believe Jesus was alive.  He went back to the grave, “I want to see Jesus, I’ll go back to the grave”.  Many workers of God today start to go the graves to find the power to serve God.  They will collect tools and power to perform miracles and impress human beings so that water can turn to wine, your black shirt will become green, I can pray and you will see me suspended in space.  I have seen that with my eyes.  When they do those things, everyone gives their offering and give money and even their houses so they can be prayed for and get blessings.

We want to see miracles but we don’t want to see where those miracles come from.  We put aside discernment.  Thomas went to tomb but he was good because he came back and informed others, “truly, He is gone.  Maybe someone stole his body”.  No one can steal Jesus from your body, He is alive.  Jesus saw Thomas and Thomas said, you appear to be Jesus but I am not sure, I am doubting.  Jesus said to him, come close to me, touch.  Jesus didn’t tell him to touch his stomach or head but to touch where he was wounded.

Imagine you have a wound and you ask someone to touch it, only a few will say that because it will hurt.  Do we have to hurt Jesus in order to believe?  When you open the Bible, why don’t you just believe but you want God to appear and you can hurt Him more before you believe it.  A tomb doesn’t move, Jesus left it a long time ago.  Those soldiers collapsed when Jesus came alive and rushed to their bosses and told them.  They were told to keep quiet with money.

Sometimes satan will tempt you by blessing you with friends or whatever you want so you can keep quiet about Jesus.  Have you decided to go to pak ’n save to talk about Jesus but you reach pak ’n save and you start to decide which one you can talk to.  You are afraid and you decide to run away and satan will bless you with that shyness and fear so you won’t share the gospel (it’s curse, not a blessing).

Jesus is outside of the tomb and is reminding you that the tomb belonged to Joseph.  Your body doesn’t belong to you. There are those who will take you (e.g. your friends, your family, your neighbours) to a tomb while you are not dead.  In my country, they can punish you by burying you alive.  You can see your neighbour is driving you nuts and taking you to bury you alive and that is where you and I make a decision not to talk to that person again because their behaviour is bad.  They have taken me like a dead body and so I hate my enemies instead of loving them and praying for them, I will curse them.

People can make your life hard and when that happens they want to kill your faith and trust in God and take you to a tomb that doesn’t belong to you.  If you are not careful your body can react quickly with anger, lust and envy because you body accepted death.

God didn’t come down to bury Adam or David but he decided to bury Moses.  Why?  If you don’t know the answer, start to search.  God will leave his throne in heaven for the love of glory and worship to separate the body of a dead person form the people.  How often does God leave the Kingdom of God to bury the dead things in you?  Who protects you and me?  God.  Our lives are in His hands. 

When we bury someone, what does it mean?  Its means to get rid of that person?  It’s a culture?  We were tired with that person?  Think about it.  If you are not buried, does it mean you didn’t die?  Some bodies are not buried.  Why do we have a cemetery that is embellished better than our hearts, minds and bodies.

In Huntly there is a beautiful cemetery.  Graves are in order, flowers and people walk with respect, slowly and read the names and talk sadly, “oh she was only 12” and they read the stories of those written on the gravestones and then they will stand where their fathers were buried, take off their hats, bend their heads, think, look and we see them in distress and then they go back home.  Some leave flowers, pots and treasures. 

You can see how often we are attached to those who left us.  Are you attached to the Christians who quit the gospel 20 years ago?  Do you visit them?  Do you think about them?  We go back because we have memories and we miss them, how often do you miss those that were in Christ.  Do you even remember their names or who they were?  Do you remember the role they played in your church?

Joshua said, “God, take my people and take them away”.  God told Moses you will lead my people to Canaan but on the way, God tells him you are not going to Canaan anymore because you hit the rock 2x and Moses says forgive me and God says no, I can only show you the city.  Have you seen the heaven open in your life?  Has God shown you the future which He is preparing for you and His people?  Has God said no in your life and you accepted it?  We very often don’t accept that word no and we think it must be satan.

I feel sick, oh must be satan.  I want a new Bible and when God says no, it must be satan.  What doesn’t work according to my desire, it must be satan.  We forget that if something doesn’t happen, it might be God.  What is the point to show Moses Canaan since he cannot enter but Moses continued to respect God.  That is the country where there is milk and honey.  Yuck, have you tried to mix this?  How does it taste? 

In Canaan there were no cows or bees so where will the milk and honey come from?  If they had a few cows, those who possessed them wanted to keep them.  There was plenty of camel milk but you can’t mix camel milk and honey.  God doesn’t give us the meat and good life we enjoyed in Egypt.  After seeing, God says, it’s enough now.  How many things have God shown you, projects etc but you are not there when they are fulfilled.  In 20 years’ time, this will happen, but you will not be alive in 20 years.  God gives to us the picture of the church and the direction of where they are going.

How many Israelites reached Canaan? A very small number because all the adults who left Egypt (except a very few) vanished before reaching it.  God who promised us the blessing but the blessing didn’t come because they didn’t obey God and preferred to live in the tomb sitting there waiting for God to do everything.  Follow Jesus wherever He is going. If you want God to act in your life, also act for God.  Prepare your mind and body and train yourself for what you want to do for God.

Maybe you rely on someone in your life but that person can die tomorrow.  If you rely on your job, maybe it will close down like DickSmith.  If you didn’t learn and prepare yourself while working at DickSmith you will regret now that it is closing down because now you have to think about job applications and where to send them.  Prepare yourself for Jesus.  Are you ready to receive Jesus who is coming back for you or do you want to be like Thomas and doubt and wonder if this is really Jesus coming back or someone else. 

Jesus will come back like a thief.  Thieves in Africa will send you a letter that they are coming for your things and you have to prepare it for them but if you leave one thing, they will kill your child.  In New Zealand, they won’t warn you.  Even the Prime-minister can be robbed.

When Jesus comes, He will come like a thief, it doesn’t matter who you are and what He will steal from you is grace.  The grace will come away from the earth and there will be no more grace.  Repentance will be gone and the Bible will be closed.  The work on the cross will be stopped.  The time for purification will be gone and it will now be the time for judgment. 

Imagine the thief becomes the judge.  He surprises you and then judges you.  If you are not ready, what will you say to Him?

Let’s pray for Zoe, for that beautiful girl.  She needs strength, guidance, blessings.